The War on the War

International:
Former Top Bush Administration Official Calls For Withdrawal of U.S. Troops From Iraq
President Bush and other administration officials have been smearing anyone who suggests we begin to withdraw troops from Iraq as “defeatist” and “cut-and-runners.”

Now Richard L. Armitage — who served as deputy secretary of state from 2001-2005 — is advocating a phased withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. “We notify the Iraqis that we’re going to be drawing down a reasonable but careful percentage of our troops over a reasonable interval of months — just for example, 5 percent of troops every three months,” Armitage told a crowd of 850 at DeSales University.

“This will show seriousness of purpose, I think. It will give our population some hope and enthusiasm that this is not a never-ending affair. And also it will put the heat on the Iraqis, because ladies and gentlemen, we can’t win this militarily. By the way, we can’t lose this militarily.”

Promises, Promises
Three years ago, Bush promised to help Iraq "

restore basic services, such as electricity and water, and to build new schools, roads, and medical clinics. This effort is essential to the stability of those nations, and therefore, to our own security." He has not kept his promise to the Iraqi people. According to statistics compiled by the Brookings Institution, daily electricity levels have hit their lowest point since the U.S. invasion -- the current rate is only 2.4 hours of electricity per day, compared to an average of 16-24 hours of electricity before the U.S. invasion. Reconstruction funds "are drying up" and builders are "pulling out," "leaving completed projects and unfulfilled plans in the hands of an Iraqi government unprepared to manage either." Corruption and lack of security have kept tens of billions of dollars from being spent effectively. "Of the US $65 billion pledged to Iraq for aid and redevelopment since March 2003," a U.N. report concluded, "only $20.5 billion has been spent on that purpose."

National:
As you probably know by now, this week is

National Character Counts Week. "During National Character Counts Week, we renew our commitment to instilling values in our young people and to encouraging all Americans to remember the importance of good character." -- President Bush, 10/13/06. I guess that’s all I need to say about that –see any headline in the last week and ask yourself about the values of politicians!

Lewis Suspends 60 Committee Investigators
Powerful House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) has abruptly suspended the contracts of “

60 investigators who had worked for his committee rooting out fraud, waste and abuse, effective immediately.” The investigators were brought on to handle the extraordinary level of fraud investigations facing the panel.

Lewis is currently under federal investigation himself over corruption charges reportedly uncovered during the Duke Cunningham investigation. He has spent nearly $800,000 in legal fees since May.

Checking On "The Course"

President Bush made a last-minute change to his schedule Friday to

meet with the top U.S. commander in the Middle East to consult on possible changes in Iraq war tactics, FOX News learned.

The one-on-one meeting with Gen. John Abizaid was previously unscheduled. "We are constantly adjusting tactics so we can achieve our objectives and right now, it's tough," Bush told the Associated Press.

In Other News...
Iraq's Prime Minister had ordered the country's health ministry to "

stop providing mortality figures to the United Nations, jeopardizing a key source of information on the number of civilian war dead in Iraq."
Moving quickly to implement the new Military Commissions Act, the Bush administration has formally notified the U.S. District Court in DC no longer has jurisdiction to consider hundreds of habeas corpus petitions filed by inmates at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

The Government Accountability Office yesterday released a report stating that government-funded abstinence education materials must also contain "medically accurate information on condom effectiveness." In the past, the Bush administration has insisted that its materials did not need to discuss condoms.

The Bush administration took another step yesterday toward building a new stockpile of up to 2,200 deployed nuclear weapons that would last well into the 21st century. The administration announced it will begin the process of

repairing and replacing nuclear production facilities as part of an attempt to replace the aging Cold War stockpile of nuclear warheads with a smaller, more reliable arsenal.

From The Right:
Jonah Goldberg:

Iraq was a worthy mistake

In this editorialm Goldberg discusses the dumbed-down debate we're having, and how he feels there are only two sides: pro-war and antiwar. He says “this is silly. First, very few folks who favored the Iraq invasion are abstractly pro-war. Second, antiwar types aren't really pacifists. They favor military intervention when it comes to stopping genocide in Darfur or starvation in Somalia or doing whatever it was that President Clinton did in Haiti.”

From The Left:

William Rivers Pitt: A Major Event

William Rivers Pitt begins, "A lot of smart people have been saying for several years now that the number one tactic deployed by the GOP during moments of political stress is simple and straightforward: they aim to scare the almighty Hell out of the American people."

Thought To Ponder:

The Pentagon's own videotape does not show a Boeing 757 hitting the building, as even Bill O'Reilly admitted when it was shown on "The Factor"; but at 155 feet, the plane was more than twice as long as the 71-foot Pentagon is high and should have been present and visible; it was not, which means that the building was not hit by a Boeing 757...right?!

(Sources: CQ, WhiteHouse website, APnews, NJ Express Times, FOXNews, Brookings, AlertNet, WashingtonPost, GAO, Guardian, PoliticalCartoons.com, TruthOut)